PC REQUIREMENT & PC BUILD (speculation)

[SaelOS]

Hey guys, it's been a while since I'm thinking about building my pc. I have so many games to catch up, but since I am big STALKER fan, I wanted to make sure that my futur pc config will allow me to play STALKER 2 in 1440p 60FPS with every settings on very high/ultra (basically the max) on a 27" QHD 144 Hz monitor, or 1080p 60FPS with every settings on very high/ultra on a 24" FHD 144 Hz monitor, in case it goes over my budget.

According to you, what is the closest GPU(s) and CPU(s), which will allow me to play the game the way I hope to play it?

If I ask, it's because the I5-12400F and the I5-12600K are cheaper where I live than the 9700K, even though, they are better ranked. The 3060 until the 3070 are cheaper than the 2070S, and the 1080-TI is slightly more expensive than the 3080 but less expensive than the 6800XT. According to the net, the 1080-TI's equivalent, which is better than the 2070S, is the 3060. But when I look at comparator websites, the 1080-TI is only beaten in raw power by the 3080-TI. The RTX series (starting from 3060) beats the 1080-TI when it comes to general characteristics.

[Pimp Shrimp]

I think they are playing it safe with the specs, better to tell people they need better hardware than worse hardware.
I have a 3060ti, i5-13600k, 32gb DDR5 and SSDs ready for this beefy game. Feel confident that I could hit 60fps 1440p. Don't think I'd get over 100 though.

[SaelOS]

Pimp Shrimp の投稿を引用：

I think they are playing it safe with the specs, better to tell people they need better hardware than worse hardware.
I have a 3060ti, i5-13600k, 32gb DDR5 and SSDs ready for this beefy game. Feel confident that I could hit 60fps 1440p. Don't think I'd get over 100 though.

*fingers crossed*

[SaelOS]

I am thinking about buying a second hand pc. I asked for some benchmark results and this is what the company sent me. I couldn't find scores for the exact same gpu, and a pc with the exact same configuration but what I found made me wonder if the GPU wasn't used for cryptomining. This is a common practice in my country. PC companies use new gpu for cryptomining, then sell them as new. GPU history is lost in companies selling second hand components/pcs. Should I buy this pc?

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800x
GPU: MSI Geforce RTX 3070 TI Ventus 3X
MB: Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming 4
RAM: Team Group 16 Go DDR4 / 3200 Mhz
Internal drive: XPG SPECTRIX S40G RGB 1Tb (i ask to upgrade it)
Case: Cooler Master Masterbox MB520 ARGB
PSU: CORSAIR AX Series, AX860, 860 Watt, 80+ Platinum Certified
CPU Cooler: ?

https://imgur.com/a/9a1izvg
https://imgur.com/x1Q6m19
https://imgur.com/3nNk0KY

i found these benchmark videos to compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOwxtTyGWM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oFlEihZ2YM

[Adam]

We can't answer this question with full accuracy until the game releases and independent benchmarking occurs, unfortunately.

We could look to Unreal Engine 5 demos, or Fortnite which was updated to UE5 (and is the only commercial product available with the engine right now), but even considering things running on the same engine, different demos and games will have wildly different technical requirements to hit certain combinations of framerate, resolution, and settings. The last point is also especially complex because there is no standardization for what different graphics settings mean. For some games, "Ultra" is the highest setting, for others it's not. For some games, the highest settings are well suited to modern hardware and run great, while in other games, the highest settings are designed to target future computers and run poorly on current computers.

A better way to think about this, in my opinion, is the following - what is the budget you're willing to spend to get the performance you want, and how bad of a problem is it if you have to compromise for slightly worse settings? When you're shopping, you'll constantly be tempted to push a little higher, spend a little more, so I find having hard budget limits set to be productive to keep things spiralling out of control.

Without knowing your full situation and how tight money is, I would generally recommend a balanced computer that tries to target somewhere close to the price/perf sweet spot while still being able to play top end games. But keep in mind that there is no guarantee that such a computer will actually achieve 1440p/60/ultra settings, or even high settings. We just don't know. But imo if it costs 30 or 40% more to achieve that, versus activating DLSS Quality mode, then it's probably not money well spent.

For CPU, up to this point a good 6 core CPU has been able to do you really well at a good price. However there are some titles recently that hit CPU very hard, and even the best CPU in the world can't get super high performance (e.g. Callisto protocol or Spiderman Remastered with RT). Since you can't buy products that don't exist, I wouldn't recommend grabbing an R9 or i9 processor, but I might recommend waiting a few weeks for the imminent launch of the Intel i5 13400 or 13500 processors. These are set to be relatively good value products with 6 "big" cores and 4 or 8 "little" cores, meaning that it should scale better to future games a few years down the line than just the 12400 could. That said, the 12400 is great value, so if you get a good deal on that, then it may still be a better bet for now.

For GPU, you have more scaling options. A 3080 12GB, if you could find one (they're a bit rare), would be a reasonably high end recommendation. The 10gb variant should still do fine. But do you need to go this high? I think something lower end like an RTX 3060 might be something you could get away with at much lower price - albiet by making heavier use of DLSS. Only you can determine if you're willing to make compromises to save money. Radeon cards offer (usually) better price/perf in raster terms, and offer more VRAM at most product tiers, but for STALKER 2 specifically it might not be the greatest idea because it's Nvidia sponsored and may not consider launching with FSR as a high priority, while the Nvidia sponsorship guarantees DLSS at launch.

[SaelOS]

Hey Adam, thank you for the reply. I read it all, and it's really informative.

I don't want the best of the best. Most games I play require a config way less powerful than the recommended one for STALKER 2. So, I'm aiming for 1440p 60 FPS, and stay close to 1000€-$, but I might have to settle for 1080p 60 FPS, and use DLSS, if I want to stay closer to 1000€-$. All i know is that I will be somewhere between 3060/3060ti and 3080ti. The 1080ti is way too expensive in my country, so price/performance ratio doesn't sit well with me. When it comesto the 3080 ti, I will either buy it second hand or when there is a huge discount so as to stay closer to the budget.

For CPU, except for STALKER 2, I don't plan on playing another unreleased game. The 12400f is one of the cheapest CPU i can find in my country, and it's scoring higher in benchmark test than the recommended CPUs for STALKER 2.

I have one question. STALKER 2 is being produced with actual CPUs and GPUs. Yes UE5 is new and Fortnite is the only released game using it. How can they develop a game for unreleased CPUs/GPUs? Their recommended specs would be even less precise.

[Adam]

Based on what you're saying, 12400 does seem good. And you'll have to shop your local markets to see what gpu you can fit into your budget. Good luck, I hope you find something that suits you well.

SAEl の投稿を引用：

I have one question. STALKER 2 is being produced with actual CPUs and GPUs. Yes UE5 is new and Fortnite is the only released game using it. How can they develop a game for unreleased CPUs/GPUs? Their recommended specs would be even less precise.

I don't necessarily mean they're using unreleased hardware to design games, but for maximum settings sometimes developers knowingly push current hardware past the point where it runs at good framerates. This is because they know future hardware will be able to scale up higher.

Some people will complain that games of this type are "badly optimized" but imo a game is only poorly optimized if the game can't scale down to get good perf while still looking reasonably good. If it can look and run well, but the highest settings are punishing, then that's just an investment in the future as I perceive it.

As a side note, although this was not what I meant previously, there are indeed some cases where developers do get hands on time with unreleased gpus, or consulted by the gpu vendors about the future direction of graphics technology. Companies like DICE were briefed of the existence of hardware raytracing in the nvidia 20 series far in advance of launch, and given early samples of the cards to help get them up and running. Remedy and even some smaller companies like the developers of "Atomic Heart" also got given stuff, and all of these companies used them to create demos for the nvidia announcement that year.

[piet11111]

igloosfolly の投稿を引用：

A big believer in the mid grade 13600kf Z690, 48 gigs of DDR4 4000, 3070ftw if that wont do it with my health probably the last rig i will build.

48 gb ram ? weird number.

[piet11111]

igloosfolly の投稿を引用：

32 kit and 16 kit crucial ballistix max is getting hard to find or at least cost prohibitive .

Mixing kits could lead to stability issues if you are pushing the speeds but if its at their rated speeds it ought to work.

[piet11111]

igloosfolly の投稿を引用：

All Crucial max and elite are Micron B die and they overclock good enough to hold the world record for overclocking and being able to boot stable . Micron will no longer be making consumer grade memory under the Crucial name but the chips can still be found in other brands .

Good but since its DDR4 i would for me be more comfortable just getting a 64gb kit since DDR4 is not that expensive anymore (but i cant talk for anyone else regarding what they can afford obviously)

[Salsicha, o espalha lixo]

Hi, my friends! So, pardon my ignorance: I got a i5 12400F, 16gb ram 3600 (I guess...) and a RTX 3060 12gb. I know I can run the game, but based on the i7 9700K, is my CPU good enough for running this game decently (not ultra ray tracing 4k, of course....)

[piet11111]

Salsicha, o espalha lixo の投稿を引用：

Hi, my friends! So, pardon my ignorance: I got a i5 12400F, 16gb ram 3600 (I guess...) and a RTX 3060 12gb. I know I can run the game, but based on the i7 9700K, is my CPU good enough for running this game decently (not ultra ray tracing 4k, of course....)

You should be fine on such a system even though the amount of ram is a bit low to my taste.
But i have a tendency to go for overkill so by the time we can all play the game you should try to see the ingame performance and where it bottlenecks if it even does that.

[Salsicha, o espalha lixo]

piet11111 の投稿を引用：

Salsicha, o espalha lixo の投稿を引用：

Hi, my friends! So, pardon my ignorance: I got a i5 12400F, 16gb ram 3600 (I guess...) and a RTX 3060 12gb. I know I can run the game, but based on the i7 9700K, is my CPU good enough for running this game decently (not ultra ray tracing 4k, of course....)

You should be fine on such a system even though the amount of ram is a bit low to my taste.
But i have a tendency to go for overkill so by the time we can all play the game you should try to see the ingame performance and where it bottlenecks if it even does that.

Thank you! The other Stalkers had a benchmark app, it would be cool to test HoC too. I think I'll wait for a release date and then buy it. Cheers, mate!

[SaelOS]

Salsicha, o espalha lixo の投稿を引用：

Hi, my friends! So, pardon my ignorance: I got a i5 12400F, 16gb ram 3600 (I guess...) and a RTX 3060 12gb. I know I can run the game, but based on the i7 9700K, is my CPU good enough for running this game decently (not ultra ray tracing 4k, of course....)

Your CPU is better than the 9700k.

Remember, this is all speculation. This game might be so badly optimized, even a 3080TI and 64gb RAM won't do it. All I can say is: upgrade your RAM. Add another 16gb. Windows already take 3-4GB. If you plan to play on ULTRA + some ray tracing, I doubt the 3060 12gb will suffice. On the net, 3060 is the RTX equivalent of the 1080TI. But in terms of benchmark/performance, the only GPUs that beat the 1080TI start at 3070. According to some websites, only the 3080TI beats the 1080TI. Having said that, you wll probably be able to play the game at 60 FPS if you set it on medium/high, with ray tracing off.

[Salsicha, o espalha lixo]

SAEl の投稿を引用：

Salsicha, o espalha lixo の投稿を引用：

Hi, my friends! So, pardon my ignorance: I got a i5 12400F, 16gb ram 3600 (I guess...) and a RTX 3060 12gb. I know I can run the game, but based on the i7 9700K, is my CPU good enough for running this game decently (not ultra ray tracing 4k, of course....)

Your CPU is better than the 9700k.

Remember, this is all speculation. This game might be so badly optimized, even a 3080TI and 64gb RAM won't do it. All I can say is: upgrade your RAM. Add another 16gb. Windows already take 3-4GB. If you plan to play on ULTRA + some ray tracing, I doubt the 3060 12gb will suffice. On the net, 3060 is the RTX equivalent of the 1080TI. But in terms of benchmark/performance, the only GPUs that beat the 1080TI start at 3070. According to some websites, only the 3080TI beats the 1080TI. Having said that, you wll probably be able to play the game at 60 FPS if you set it on medium/high, with ray tracing off.

Thank you! I was actually thinking on adding more 16gb. I don't care too much about ray tracing, I just want to run it decently ahhaahhaha

[Pimp Shrimp]

Salsicha, o espalha lixo の投稿を引用：

SAEl の投稿を引用：

Your CPU is better than the 9700k.

Remember, this is all speculation. This game might be so badly optimized, even a 3080TI and 64gb RAM won't do it. All I can say is: upgrade your RAM. Add another 16gb. Windows already take 3-4GB. If you plan to play on ULTRA + some ray tracing, I doubt the 3060 12gb will suffice. On the net, 3060 is the RTX equivalent of the 1080TI. But in terms of benchmark/performance, the only GPUs that beat the 1080TI start at 3070. According to some websites, only the 3080TI beats the 1080TI. Having said that, you wll probably be able to play the game at 60 FPS if you set it on medium/high, with ray tracing off.

Thank you! I was actually thinking on adding more 16gb. I don't care too much about ray tracing, I just want to run it decently ahhaahhaha

I'm 100% positive you'll be fine (as long as it is not awfully optimised, as the other person said - in which case we'd all be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ anyway!)

You can keep an eye on your RAM usage in games and then if you notice it capping out then there is no harm in upgrading to 32gb :)